Videos appear in many shapes and sizes. A video player within an app has different measurements to a video player on a website. The size of the video also depends on the device, and this is why each video has multiple asset types.

Each asset type has its own playback quality and specific measurements. Usually, the player automatically adapts to the chosen asset type. There are, however, certain situations in which it is undesirable that the player automatically adapts. For example, when a specific space on a website is reserved for video. This then requires the player to fit seamlessly within this chosen space, regardless of the chosen asset size.

In such cases, to avoid black bars appearing on the sides of the player, we provide a colour option so that the sides blend into the background of the site.

Floating Player

We have recently added floating capabilities to the instream video and outstream video formats. What this means, is that the player will jump to a designated area of the page when scrolled out of view, most commonly to the bottom right corner.

Example of floating player

The floating player provides the opportunity to keep the player in view and playing, while also auto playing the next clip on completion, so that overall views are increased. As a natural addition to this, there is a further chance of monetization as an instream ad can be called between each clip. For outstream, as it is ad based only, the floating player boosts key advertiser metrics such as completion rates and viewability.

How to set dimensions

The setting ‘width when floating’ can be set using a simple piece of code. By indicating that the browser is smaller than (<) a certain dimension, the floating player should always be half of that dimension (:2).

The floating player is fully customizable in terms of size. Upon floating, the default size is 400 pixels, though can be adjusted easily in our UI. While the format works on mobile devices, it may be that floating on very small screens is deemed intrusive, and hence we also built a feature where a minimum screen size for floating can be enabled.